Francistown & Gaborone, Botswana

Traveling on to Francistown was a tricky proposition since we did not have our own vehicle. First we had to walk down to the intersection that passes for downtown Nata. And then we had to find a van heading south, waiting for quite a while in the van until we have a full compliment of passengers, something we call “achieving valence”. This should make sense if you took chemistry in school. This time we had to wait quite a while for the final two or three “electrons”!

Above and Below: Views on the way south. On this stretch we saw no wildlife just cattle, farms, and the odd store or business here and there.

Francistown was a bit of a disappointment, for me at least. If I may borrow and misuse Gertrud Stein’s comment on Oakland, California, I felt “there is no there there“. I mean the town has some history but they have managed to effectively obliterate most of it, covering it with malls and shabby-looking supermarkets. The most interesting place was the open air market right up against the bus terminal.

We also had trouble at first finding a good hotel. With a map app in hand we walked to where I thought was an affordable place. I finally found the place, opened the gate and knocked on the door. I was told, “This is not a hotel anymore. And you better leave the yard because there is a dog here that bites.”

This was now the second hotel off my list, the first being way too expensive just by looking at it. I was down to my last choice, the historical Diggers Inn. It was over $40 a night. I was going to settle for that and move on the next night but, luckily, I noticed just then another hotel just a block away that that was less than half that, City Inn. This place was perfectly suitable. End of a long travel day.

Left: The next day we explored the town starting with a small city park nearby. There were some interesting cultural exhibits here. I took some pictures and, strangely enough, a guard came up and told me that it was not allowed. I was told I could use a cellphone but not a camera! What a strange rule. And mine was not a really fancy camera.

Right: Pretty close to the hotel, on the edge of town was a steep, paved path that went right up Nyangabwe Hill, where you can get a good view of the city. Before we went up this lady (pictured) spoke to me, “Hey, English!” she said, “We want to take a picture. ” We obliged. And then we took their picture too.

Birds seen on our trek up the hill: Left: Cut-throat Finch, Amadina fasciata. (Not your usual prosaic bird name, don’t you think?) Center: Southern Red Bishop, Euplectes orix. Right: African Gray Hornbill, Lophoceros nasutus.

Photos above and beow: After two days we were ready to head down Highway A1 to the capitol city, Gaborone. We stopped in a few places, giving me a chance to take a few photos through the grimy tinted windows.

Finally made it to Gaborone. Everything we needed to see – and most of what I wanted to see – was in semi-easy walking distance. Like in many African cities, crossing the street was a bit dicey.

After a long walk to downtown we saw a cool, shady plaza where we sat down and rested. But a guard told us we were not allowed to be in the plaza because of Covid! This was in full view of street sweepers enjoying their lunch break under the shade nearby.

We were fortunate to get the affordable Gaborone Hotel (Below) right next to transportation, a market, and two shopping centers (Above).

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ISKCON Hindu Temple

Left: Botswanan stamps, Top Right: Karoo Thrush, Turdus smithi ,and Frangipani Tree. Bottom Right: Speckled Mousebird, Colius striatus.

Truck loaded with hay (?) at the Botswana-South Africa border checkpoint. We had to get out of the bus and walk quite a distance to the other side. I, without thinking, had my camera strapped around my neck. Because of this I had to fill out another form declaring the value of the camera, where I had bought it, and other pointless details. I should have left it in my backpack!

Welcome to South Africa!

Well… it was not really the kind of welcome that we wanted. But that is another story.